Specimen 1997-1

It provides the oldest skeletal evidence of leprosy

a museum in Pune has a collection of thousands of bones and skeletons excavated in India. Among them is a 4,000 year old skeleton of a man believed to be 37 years when he died. This skeleton was found buried at Balathal, about 40 km north-east of Udaipur in Rajasthan.

What sets it apart from other skeletons at the museum of the Department of Archaeology, Deccan College Post-Graduate Research Institute, is that it provides the oldest evidence of leprosy in human beings. The skeleton called specimen 1997-1 was analysed by anthropologists and biologists from Deccan College and from Appalachian State University, North Carolina, usa.